This invention was not developed in conjunction with any Federally sponsored contract.
Not applicable.
The related U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/935,393, filed on Aug. 23, 2001, by William Kress Bodin, is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety, including figures.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the arts of inventory control devices and systems, point-of-sale systems, electronic article surveillance, theft control, supply chain management systems, and on-line purchasing systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
As shown in FIG. 1, many retail stores use electronic article surveillance systems (xe2x80x9cEASxe2x80x9d) (10) to detect and deter theft of products from the retail space or show room floor. These systems, such as Ultra-Max [TM] by Sensormatic Electronics Corporation, may include a number of xe2x80x9cpedestalsxe2x80x9d (12) which are positioned near the exits (18) of the protected retail space, often resembling stylized gates beside doorways, inconspicuous metal loops above exit doors, or even concealed in the floor near an exit.
EAS systems (10) typically use EAS xe2x80x9ctagsxe2x80x9d or labels (16), which consist of small and inexpensive (e.g. disposable) antenna and transmitter systems, operated on acoustic-magnetic principles or by radio frequency technologies. Tags which operate on radio-frenquency-based techniques are often referred to as xe2x80x9cRFIDxe2x80x9d, or xe2x80x9cradio frequency IDxe2x80x9d tags. The tags (16) are affixed to the products (15) to be protected, either though a semi-permanent attachment means or in an adhesive label.
The tags are activated when they are placed in a field P1 emitted by a pedestal (12), such as a short-range RF signal. When activated, the tags (16) transmit a signal to the pedestal (12), which results in an alarm being sounded to alert store personnel to the attempted theft.
In their simplest form, a xe2x80x9cdumbxe2x80x9d tag may simply be enabled and disabled by a signal transmitted to it by a point-of-sale system. These dumb tags are disabled at the time of check-out by a cashier using a point-of-sale (13) disabling device (14). Any products which enter the proximity P1 of a pedestal (12) which are not disabled cause an alarm to be sounded, signifying a potential theft in progress. These types of simple tags are typically employed to protect items of relatively low retail value, such as certain clothing articles, accessories, etc.
More sophisticated tags, though, may be programmed to include more information about the product. The programming may be done by the manufacturer of the item, or may be done by the retailer using specialized programming tools (17) having a short-range communications capability P3 to the tag (16). The tag program can include an item identification number such as a stock tracking number, stockkeeping unit number (xe2x80x9cSKUxe2x80x9d), universal product code (xe2x80x9cUPCxe2x80x9d), product category codes, etc. This tag information may be used by a pedestal controller computer (11) to track which items are being xe2x80x9cstolenxe2x80x9d most often, at what times, etc.
RF ID tags can also be embedded into credit cards and ID badges and used by automatic door lock activators to provide secure door operations. When a person carrying such a badge or card approaches the door, the badge is place in proximity of the pedestal (12) or xe2x80x9creaderxe2x80x9d, which collects the ID code from the badge and sends it to the pedestal controller computer (11). If the ID code is associated with a person who is entitled to enter or pass through the door (18), the controller (11) provides an unlock signal to an electronically actuated door lock (19). The controller (11) may implement in software a number of other security features, such as tracking of entries and exits, production of access reports, time-based access, etc.
The related patent application disclosed a system and method of using an RF ID or a pervasive computing device to allow the highlighting of products on display according to a shopper""s interests or preferences. For example, a shopper can be provided with a store credit card which includes an RF ID device embedded in it. A special pedestal is placed near a point of display, such as a show display. When the shopper nears the display and enters the proximity of the pedestal, the RFID is activated, and the shopper""s ID is established. Then, an enhanced controller computer accesses a data store over a computer network to determine if any products on display match the shopper""s preferences or interests, such as a certain size, style or color of shoe.
If a match is found, then small indicators such as LED""s are activated near the matching products in order to bring the shopper""s attention to the products. In a further enhancement of the related invention, the enhanced controller computer can interface to a stores supply chain management (xe2x80x9cSCMxe2x80x9d) or inventory tracking system to determine if a product matching the preferences is actually in stock at the store.
In alternate and more advanced embodiments, the system and method of the related invention employed proximity-enabled pervasive computing devices, such as wireless networked personal digital assistants (xe2x80x9cPDAxe2x80x9d) and handheld computers, and wireless application protocol (xe2x80x9cWAPxe2x80x9d) enabled cellular and PCS telephones instead of the RF ID badge or card for identifying the consumer. Further, in these embodiments, more information such as screens of text and images can be provided to the consumer, instead of a simple indication of a product and/or it""s stock availability.
While the related invention has provided certain improvements to a shopping experience, there remain other problems yet unsolved with the experience of shopping and buying products in a xe2x80x9crealxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cbricks-and-mortarxe2x80x9d environment compared to an online shopping experience. One such problem is the issue of waiting in line for service by a cashier, especially during peak shopping hours.
For example, many video rental stores experience very low customer volumes during the majority of a business day, except the time immediately following the end of the traditional business shift. So, to maintain profitability, the store cannot afford to maintain a large staff throughout the entire day just to accommodate a significant surge of consumer traffic for a 1 or 2 hour period. Consequently, during these peak hours, a consumer may be required to wait in a check out line for many minutes to be serviced by a minimum number of cashiers.
This phenomenon, of course, is not limited to video rental stores. In fact, many types of retail establishments experience peak customer periods correlating to lunch break periods, ends of work shifts, and weekend shopping, including home improvement stores, clothing stores, pharmacies, gift shops, and cleaners.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a system and method which reduces the personnel support required to service customers through a checkout or cashier process. This system and method must be compatible with current anti-theft and inventory control systems to avoid the requirement of trained personnel to operate point-of-sale theft tag disablers.